Steven Pinker on The Better Angels of Our Nature

Both Britain and the EU Would Be Happier if They got Divorced: Some people just can’t bring themselves to acknowledge that a relationship is over. Finished. Unsalvageable. David Cameron, for instance. His long awaited speech on Europe has been one big exercise in denial. Yes, we should stay married to Europe, he s... by Intelligence Squared

49 min listen

Western Liberal Democracy Would be Wrong for China: People everywhere are better off living in liberal democracy: that has been the reigning assumption of the western world. But could it be we’ve got it wrong? If you were one of the world’s billions of poor peasants might you not be better off under a s... by Intelligence Squared

102 min listen

Robert Macfarlane on Landscape and the Human Heart: How do the landscapes we love shape the people we are? Why do we walk? For several years and more than a thousand miles, celebrated travel writer Robert Macfarlane has been following the vast network of old paths and routes that criss-cross Britain and... by Intelligence Squared

34 min listen

Steven Pinker on The Better Angels of Our Nature: We launch our first podcast of the year today – our 2011 talk by the world renowned American cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. In it he argues that, contrary to popular belief, we are living in the least violent period of history. And that even the ho... by Intelligence Squared

90 min listen

One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Democracy is Not Always the Best Form of Government: Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. So said Winston Churchill and who would disagree? One man, one vote, the rule of law, equality and a free press. These are the principles which tens of thousands have... by Intelligence Squared

48 min listen

Dan Pink on the Science of Buoyancy: It happens to all of us every day. You get rejected. Your customer doesn’t buy. Your boss doesn’t agree. Your crush doesn’t say yes. In this provocative and entertaining talk, Daniel Pink, author of the New York Times best seller Drive, harvests a ri... by Intelligence Squared

81 min listen

Pornography is Good For Us: Without it We Would Be a Far More Repressed Society: Hooray for porn! What would we be without it? Bored, repressed, frustrated. Porn allows the timid to indulge fantasies they’d never live out in real life and the adventurous to experiment with new forms of pleasure. Now that it has stepped down from th... by Intelligence Squared

88 min listen

Angela Merkel is Destroying Europe: They're calling her the devil. Inflammatory words, but Europe has every reason to be livid with the German Chancellor. Angela Merkel’s austerity measures are strangling the economies of the southern nations of Europe, creating huge unemployment an... by Intelligence Squared

49 min listen

Terry Eagleton in conversation with Roger Scruton: What really divides the left and the right? To answer this question, Intelligence Squared brought together two giants of British intellectual culture for an ideological reckoning: Terry Eagleton, literary critic and long-time hero of the radical left, ... by Intelligence Squared

89 min listen

Naomi Wolf on 'Vagina: A New Biography': American author Naomi Wolf made her name with The Beauty Myth, a book that exposed the tyranny of the ideal of female beauty. Now she’s back with a no less dramatic or controversial new work. In Vagina: A New Biography Wolf makes the case that the vagi... by Intelligence Squared

96 min listen

Daniel Dennett on Tools to Transform our Thinking: Daniel Dennett is one of the world’s most original and provocative thinkers. A philosopher and cognitive scientist, he is known as one of the ‘Four Horseman of New Atheism’ along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens. On M... by Intelligence Squared

85 min listen

Jeffrey Sachs on JFK and His Quest For Peace: How can leadership lessons from the past be applied to intractable international problems today? In this talk from July 2013, shortly before the 50th anniversary of President John F Kennedy's assignation, the world renowned economist Jeffrey Sach... by Intelligence Squared

83 min listen

Sam Harris on the Science of Good and Evil: Where do our ideas about morality and meaning come from? Most people - from religious extremists to secular scientists - would agree on one point: that science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, science's failure to explain... by Intelligence Squared

85 min listen

Nate Silver On The Art And Science Of Prediction: Nate Silver is the 35-year-old data engineer and forecaster with superstar status. He shot to fame in 2008 for correctly predicting the outcome in 49 out of 50 states in the US presidential election. In 2012, when most media pundits and political analy... by Intelligence Squared

87 min listen

Chris Anderson on the Democratisation of Manufacturing, Design and Technology: In an age of custom-fabricated, do-it-yourself product design and creation, the collective potential of a million garage tinkerers and enthusiasts is about to be unleashed... Check out today's Advent podcast where Wired Magazine editor Chris Ande... by Intelligence Squared

84 min listen

"Contemporary Art Excludes the 99%": What is the role of contemporary art museums today? Are biennales and art fairs platforms for experiment and exchange, or little more than social attractions for the elite? Have collectors become the new curators? Are private and corporate interests in... by Intelligence Squared

79 min listen

Michael Sandel on the Moral Limits of Markets: Should we pay children to get good grades? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? Michael Sandel is one of th... by Intelligence Squared

69 min listen

Send Them Back: The Parthenon Marbles Should be Returned to Athens: What’s all this nonsense about sending the Parthenon Marbles back to Greece? If Lord Elgin hadn’t rescued them from the Parthenon in Athens and presented them to the British Museum almost 200 years ago, these exquisite sculptures – the finest embodimen... by Intelligence Squared

48 min listen

Calm Down Dears: State Snooping Is A Price Worth Paying For Our Security: So now we know: our spooks and their spooks are hoovering up and exchanging massive amounts of data on our private lives: not just whom we phone and email but the actual content of our communications; not just which websites we visit but what we choose... by Intelligence Squared

95 min listen

An Anatomy Of Truth: Conversations on Truth-Telling: Not everyone tells the truth. ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.’ ‘This isn’t going to hurt.’ ‘I see no ships, my lord.’ ‘Of course I love you.’ When can we know what to believe? Four out of five of us don’t think politicians tell the truth, according to a r... by Intelligence Squared

99 min listen

Putin Has Been Good For Russia: There’s not a lot to like about Vladimir Putin: he’s autocratic, vain and runs a corrupt government. And he doesn’t give a fig for human rights. The repression in Chechnya, the jailing of the (now pardoned) businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the Puss... by Intelligence Squared

98 min listen

Thomas Friedman: A Manifesto For Rescuing America: 14. Thomas Friedman: A manifesto for rescuing America Thomas L. Friedman is an internationally renowned author, reporter, and columnist – the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes and the author of six bestselling books, and writes a twice-weekly column ... by Intelligence Squared

63 min listen

David Eagleman on the Science of De- (and Re-) Humanisation (and Why it Matters): Which side were you on? The Jets or the Sharks? The Capulets or the Montagues? The Greeks or the Trojans? Antony or Caesar? William or Harold? And so the list goes on ... Indeed, maybe the whole of human history is the story of group-making and group-b... by Intelligence Squared

79 min listen

Niall Ferguson On The Six Killer Apps Of Western Civilisation: Niall Ferguson is the most brilliant British historian of his generation. In this talk from February 2011, based on his book 'Civilisation: The West and the Rest', he asks how Western civilization came to dominate the rest of the world. His... by Intelligence Squared

85 min listen

Jimmy Carter in Conversation with Jon Snow: President Jimmy Carter is a Nobel Prize winner, author, humanitarian, professor, farmer, naval officer and carpenter. In this special Intelligence Squared interview with Channel 4 News's Jon Snow, which took place in October 2011, President Cart... by Intelligence Squared

74 min listen

The Best Chance For Peace In Israel And Palestine Is For Uncle Sam To Butt Out: Is it surprising that the Israelis and Palestinians are still unable to come to some sort of agreement? After all if the adjudicator in a mediation is firmly on your side why bother to concede anything to the enemy? Conversely, why accept anything prop... by Intelligence Squared

110 min listen

The West Has Failed Syria: To say “The West has failed Syria” tempts us into the dangerous belief that had we only got stuck into this conflict from the off, things would now be better. It’s a belief, as recent history shows, we badly need to resist. So speaks the voice of caut... by Intelligence Squared

90 min listen

We've Never Had It So Good: It's 2014 and what does Britain have to look forward to? Osborne’s welfare cuts. An umpteenth series of Celebrity Big Brother. Adult children still living at home and cadging off the Bank of Mum and Dad (repayment not guaranteed). That’s the grip... by Intelligence Squared

98 min listen

Let Them Come: We Have Nothing To Fear From High Levels Of Immigration: Does mass immigration boost our economy and cultural richness or undermine them? Hear Times columnist David Aaronovitch, former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and the economist Susie Symes go head to head with UKIP's Nigel Farage, Demos director ... by Intelligence Squared

110 min listen

An Evening With Slavoj Zizek: Radical philosopher, polymath, film star, cult icon, and author of over 30 books, Slavoj Žižek is one of the most controversial and leading contemporary public intellectuals, simultaneously acclaimed as the ‘Elvis of cultural theory’ and denounced as ‘... by Intelligence Squared

92 min listen

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Steven Pinker on The Better Angels of Our Nature

Steven Pinker on The Better Angels of Our Nature

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